Indefinite Pronouns
The indefinite pronouns todo, toda, todos, todas are followed by the definite article in European Portuguese, and also elsewhere when they mean "whole". Otherwise, articles and indefinite pronouns are mutually exclusive.
In the demonstratives and in some indefinite pronouns, there is a trace of the neuter gender of Latin. For example, todo and esse are used with masculine referents, toda and essa are used with feminine referents, and tudo and isso are used when there is no definite referent e.g. todo livro or todo o livro, "every book"; toda salada or toda a salada, "every salad"; tudo "everything", and so on:
- este, esta, estes, estas ("this", "these"); isto ("this thing")
- esse, essa, esses, essas ("that", "those"); isso ("that thing")
- aquele, aquela, aqueles, aquelas ("that", "those"); aquilo ("that thing")
- algum, alguma, alguns, algumas ("some"); algo ("something")
- nenhum, nenhuma, nenhuns, nenhumas ("no"); nada ("nothing")
- todo, toda, todos, todas ("every", "all"); tudo ("everything")
In terms of agreement, however, these "neuter" words function as masculine: both todo and tudo take masculine adjective pronouns.
Read more about this topic: Portuguese Grammar
Famous quotes containing the words indefinite and/or pronouns:
“There are times when they seem so small! And then again, although they never seem large, there is a vastness behind them, a past of indefinite complexity and marvel, an amazing power of absorbing and assimilating, which forces one to suspect some power in the race so different from our own that one cannot understand that power. And ... whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only necessary to ask oneself: “Well, who are the best people to live with?””
—Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904)
“In the meantime no sense in bickering about pronouns and other parts of blather.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)